Speakers

QB Seedy Saturday 2019 Speakers ~ Saturday, February 2nd, 2019

Our global industrialized food system has become unsustainable, and its impacts on food, health and the environment are now widely understood. How often do you worry about the safety of the food you consume? How best can we mitigate the effects of a broken food system, so that traditional cultures are preserved and all may be fed with healthy nutritious food?

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Carolyn Herriot

Carolyn Herriot ran The Garden Path Centre for Organic Gardening and Seeds of Victoria in Victoria for 25 years. She is author of three books; A Year on the Garden Path, The Zero-Mile Diet and The Zero-Mile Diet Cookbook. She teaches Eco-Nutrition at the Canadian School of Holistic Nutrition in Nanaimo. She lives with her husband Guy Dauncey in Yellow Point, and currently runs a programme called ‘Grow Your Own Farm’ at Deep Roots Farm across the road from her home.

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TOPIC FOCUS: 1. Benefits of keeping Mason Bees-pollination 2. Bee Box design-poor designs vs. good designs 3. Early Spring-placement of bee boxes 4. Late Spring-Put the bee box away 5. Fall-Time to clean the bees and the box 6. Safely store the bees 7. Predators and what we can do about them 8. Pollen Mites

Time permitting, Larry will show a 12 minute video of Mason Bees working in their chambers, provisioning for their young, laying eggs, making mud walls and going about their daily routines.

ABOUT LARRY:

Larry Church

In the 1980’s, I was one of the first Master Gardeners in the Victoria area. At the time I was working in a parks and recreation setting (now called West Shore Parks and Recreation). Then, for a total of 33 years, I moved on to more wilderness parks.In the early 1990’s, I read a book about Mason Bees and built a bee box of drilled holes. After the first season I soon realized there had to be a better way of doing things. More research (books) followed. Then, I built a better bee box. I still have that bee box and it is working just fine.My knowledge about Mason Bees has greatly improved as a result of my acquaintance with an entomologist at UVIC who specializes in native bees. Whenever I find something unusual or different, I email him pictures and questions about my find.I have presented workshops at numerous schools, community centers and at Seedy Saturday events around the North Island. All the bee boxes I build are of recycled or re-purposed wood. They’re easy to maintain and should last a lifetime.